New Yankee Tricks to Circumvent the U-Boat

http://anengineersaspect.blogspot.com.es/2013/01/1917-inventions-to-circumvent-u-boat.html

The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sunday Morning, August 19, 1917.

AMONG the thousands of suggested methods of fighting submarines--most of them by persons who have not even rudimentary knowledge of the conditions with which they are attempting to deal--a few stick out with every appearance of being practical. The August number of the Electrical Experimenter features three of these: one by its editor, one by Nikola Tesla, and one by H. Hartman, a New York electrical engineer, inventor of the submarine camera and other devices.

All have the merit of novelty. Mr. Tesla's invention is a way of detecting submarines before they can be seen. That of Mr. H. Gernsback, editor of the Electrical Experimenter, is a method of blinding the submarine so that its commander cannot take aim with his torpedoes. That of Mr. Hartman is a small submerged fort, containing torpedo tubes, for protecting the entrances to harbors from attacks by submarines.

RUMORS have been printed that Mr. Tesla had invented an electric ray that would destroy submarines at a considerable distance. These rumors, while distorted, are based upon actual facts. Mr. Tesla's device is a tremendously powerful electric ray that while it will not destroy a submarine, will be reflected back from it in such a way as to reveal its presence and position, thus making its capture or destruction a comparatively easy matter. Describing it to H. Winfield Secor, Mr. Tesla said:

"If we can shoot out a concentrated ray comprising a stream of minute electric charges vibrating electrically at tremendous frequency, say millions of cycles per second, and then intercept this ray, after it has been reflected by a submarine hull, for example, and cause this intercepted ray to illuminate a fluorescent screen (similar to the X-ray method) on the same or another ship, then our problem of locating the hidden submarine will have been solved.

Nikola Tesla Has a High-Vibration Electric Ray for Locating Submerged U-Boats at a Safe Distance--Hartman's One-Man "Submarine Fort" Can Be Towed About and Planted Where it Will Do the Most Good.

NIKOLA TESLA'S suggestion for detecting submarines at a distance is the projection of an invisible concentrated ray comprising a stream of minute electrical charges vibrating at a frequency of millions of cycles per second. This ray on striking the hull of a submarine would be reflected and the reflected ray could be caught on a fluorescent screen at the mouth of a submerged periscope tube on the same or on other ships.